P Deutermann - The Moonpool

“Mr. Richter,” intoned my favorite voice from my favorite Bureau.

“Special Agent,” I said. “We have developments.”

“I’m all ears,” he said, and then laughed at his own joke. He wasn’t laughing when I’d finished, though, so I tried a little sucking up. “I’m letting you know in advance of the Coast Guard report, which should be hitting the wires this morning.”

“Not so far in advance that your Bureau knew about it before you ventured to sea,” he said.

“You’re always telling me not to bother you with rumors, Special Agent,” I said.

“Mmm-hnnh,” he said. His confidence in me was overwhelming. Tony was rolling his eyes.

“And I must point out,” I said, “I still can’t prove that was Trask driving. All I saw last night was a big bow wave. The voice on the radio sounded like Trask, but…”

“Yes. But.”

“Right,” I said and stopped there, waiting to see what he’d do.

“Tell me, Mr. Richter,” he said. “Did you find anything in your Ms. Gardner’s vehicle that assisted you in your inquiries?”

I looked at Pardee, who shook his head. “Not really,” I said. “Agent Young has everything we laid hands on, and frankly, we’re still stumped.”

“Special Agent Young says she thought she saw a cell phone in the briefcase, but it’s not there now.”

“Beats me,” I said. “If you find it, I’d sure like to see the call log.”

“Mmm-hnnh.”

“Well, that’s the news from the waterfront. Thought you ought to know.”

“What are your intentions now, Mr. Richter?”

“We’re going to keep working the Allie mystery.”

“And your job with Dr. Quartermain?”

“Well, that’s languishing in the Overtaken By Events box with this apparent homicide at the moonpool,” I said. “Dr. Quartermain tells us he has all the help he can stand right now.”

“Is he there right now?”

“Yes, I am,” Ari called from across the office. “Any progress, Special Agent?”

“You will be the second person to know, Dr. Quartermain,” Creeps said. “Mr. Richter? Keep in touch, will you?”

“Absolutely,” I said. “You know me-I keep my Bureau informed as best I can.” Tony and Pardee struggled not to laugh out loud.

“Mmm-hnnh.”

Then the connection was broken. I made sure by punching off the speaker’s power button. I’d been nearly undone one time by a speakerphone I thought was off. I looked over at Ari.

“If that’s not Carl Trask’s body in that container,” I said, “then you’ve got to get an ID of some kind.”

“NRC nuclear medicine people are working on that,” he said. “We’re trying to find something in the physical security office which might have Trask’s DNA on it-coffee cup, a jacket with a hair or two, gloves, you know. If we can do that, they think they can get a core sample from the body.”

“A core sample.” I had visions of the major’s horse syringe on the end of a long broomstick.

“He won’t feel a thing,” he said with a shrug. “The bigger problem, for us, is the unauthorized access issue. I explained that to you, I think.”

I nodded. “Pardee here is a computer science expert,” I said. “If you’d care to walk him through your access system, maybe he could give you a fresh viewpoint. Tony and I have to go back to Southport to meet with the marina’s insurance agent.”

“Appreciate any help I can get,” he said to Pardee.

“Remember the redhead we brought with us that morning at your house?” I asked.

“Indeed.”

“She’s both a computer expert and someone who’s apparently well versed in penetrating federal security systems. I think the feds have her right now. Why don’t you suggest to Special Agent Caswell that they put her on the problem, too.”

“She’s back in custody?” he asked.

“Well, we think so,” I said, ducking a detailed answer. “If he gives you a categorical no, I’d be interested to know why not.”

“Okay,” he said. “I’ll pull that string for you.”

At that moment, his secretary knocked on the door to tell him that Dr. Petrowska and her assistant were waiting to see him. That was my cue to get gone.

I told Ari that once we got out from under the boat mess, maybe we could take a look at the people who could have gained access to the moonpool, other than Trask. I suggested a records search, not interviews, something we could do away from the limelight.

“I’ll see if I can arrange that,” he said. “The NRC reliability program people are doing that, of course, and the Bureau types are looking over their shoulders.”

“I understand, and we don’t want to tread on any toes. Can’t hurt. I think.”

He barked a laugh. “What could possibly go wrong, as you are so fond of saying.”

As we went out, La Petrowska gave me an annoyed look.

“Just what we need,” she snapped. “More unqualified interference.”

“Seems like what you do need is some qualified American management up at the moonpool,” I said. “Isn’t all that stuff supposed to stay in the pool?”

Her eyes blazed and I thought she was going to take a swing at me. The man with her grabbed her forearm and pointed her into Ari’s office. I recognized him as the guy I’d seen on the ferryboat, coming back from Carolina Beach. He turned around as I left and gave me a perplexed look, as if he were surprised to see me there. What the hell was that about, I wondered. I asked the secretary what his name was, and she said it was Dr. Thomason, and he was a Ph. D., but that was all she knew.

Tony and I had lunch at the deli and, on the way out, ran into Sergeant McMichaels. He stopped to talk.

“Heard you had an excellent adventure last night,” he said.

“Word does get around,” I said. “We’re lucky to be standing here.”

“There was a river pilot on board the container ship,” he explained. “They all live around here. And it was deliberate?”

“We think so.”

“And it was Brother Trask at the helm of the other boat?”

“That’s who set up the rendezvous point, which was the point of all the number strings in the note you brought me. He arrived going at full speed, drove over the top of us, and kept going.”

“So if I happen to see him again, he is, what do the federals call them-a person of interest?”

“If I see him before you do, he’ll be ER-bound.”

“Tsk-tsk, Lieutenant,” he said with a grin. “That would be vigilante talk. We’ll have none of that in our happy little metropolis.”

“I’ll take him out into the county,” I said. “Then I’ll beat the shit out of him. The Bureau’s been cut in on what happened, by the way.”

His expression became serious. “I am hearing some truly strange stories coming out of the Helios power plant,” he said. “You would not be involved in any of those goings-on, would you?”

“Tangentially, but our focus is something else. Our Bureau has invited us to butt out of the other matter, as it were, and we’re obliging.”

“Our Bureau, indeed,” he said. “Oh, there’s something else.”

We took a few steps away from the busy entrance to the deli for some privacy. “There’s an impious young lad in this town who has been, as they say, talking trash in your direction.”

“Ah, that would be Billy,” I replied.

“Yes, it would. Billy Summers. Previously employed by the good colonel at Helios, and now back on the dole and unhappy with that situation.”

“Which he thinks I caused.”

“He does, indeed. Working himself up to doing something about that, apparently.”

“He have the moxie for it?” Tony asked.

McMichaels shrugged. “He’s like a fear-biter dog. You never quite know what Billy Summers will do. It sounds like all talk, but then he can strike out. He is known to us, and we don’t much care for the lad, truth be told.”